Safe Keeping
by By the Sounding Sea
Summary: After an autistic Tori is removed from her home, she is placed in foster care with Andre's family. Sequel to "Just a Girl at Heart."


**I've had this written for awhile now, so while I struggle with the final chapter to _Silent Music _(by the way, if anyone has any ideas for that, I beg you to PM me with them), I present you all with the sequel to _Just a Girl at Heart_! Thank you all for your patience, and I really hope you like this as much as you seemed to like _Just a Girl _(but just in case you don't, remember that sequels are never as good as originals). If there's anything you'd like to see in future chapters of this story, I encourage you to PM me with those ideas, too. Enjoy!**

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"I'll see you later, Mom!" I called to my mother in the kitchen as I was about to head out of the house. She met up with me a second later.

"Where are you going, André?" she asked me.

"I'm going to see my friend Tori," I told her.

"Are you sure you're well enough?"

"Of course I'm well enough," I said, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. I had been sick with a bad cold for the past week, and during that time, my mother had kept me prisoner in my own room.

"You're not well enough to go to school, but you're well enough to go see this Tori girl," Mom muttered. I didn't bother pointing out that she was the one who had locked my door from the outside.

"It's important, Mom, okay?"

"I just don't understand _why_ this girl is so important to you. Whenever you talk on the phone to her, you seem so irritated," Mom said.

"I'm not talking to Tori. I'm talking to her sister. Tori doesn't talk much," I explained.

"What kind of normal teenage girl doesn't talk much?"

"She's not all that normal," I said simply. "I gotta go now, Mom."

"But wait! When do I get to meet—" The sound of the door slamming shut drowned out my mother's voice. I opened the garage door and smiled as I got my first whiff of fresh air in over a week. I got into my car thinking about how great playing outside with Tori was going to be that day.

It had been about four weeks since Trina inadvertently introduced us to her autistic sister, Tori. Except for the last week, I had gone over to the Vega's house every single day to play with Tori and make sure that Trina took proper care of her baby sister. Over time, Tori had become really comfortable with me. She still didn't talk much, but she did talk a little louder, and she liked to be hugged by me now. I don't think I had ever felt as great as I did the day she hugged me for the first time. Now she ran up and hugged me whenever I entered the room.

I had mentioned Tori to my parents, but I had never brought up the fact that my new friend was autistic. It wasn't like they would insist that I stop spending time with her if they did know, of course, but I knew that they wouldn't understand why I liked her so much, and I didn't feel like explaining to them that the fact that she was autistic didn't matter to me. I didn't see that part of her. I just saw Tori.

My thoughts were interrupted when I pulled up to the Vega's house and saw an unfamiliar car parked in the driveway, and a man and a woman dragging Tori out of the house as she screamed at the top of her lungs, fighting them with all her might. I parked my car on the side of the road and ran over to her. She stopped screaming the second she saw me. Tori sunk her teeth into each of their hands (she was smarter than people gave her credit for). They released her, and she ran over and wrapped her arms around me.

"André," she said authoritatively. "My André."

"That's right, baby doll. I'm all yours," I told her as the man and woman approached us, shaking their hands out.

"Come on, Victoria. We have to go," the woman said as the man tried to pry Tori away from me. She was also apparently stronger than even I gave her credit for.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded.

"We're with Child Protective Services. We're supposed to remove Victoria Vega from this home on counts of neglect and possible abandonment," the man explained.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "No, that can't—" I was about to protest, but then I actually looked at Tori. Her clothes were dirty and wrinkled, and her hair was really greasy, looking and smelling like it hadn't been washed in a week. The last time _I _had washed it.

"Tori, sweetie," I said to her. "Where's your sister? Where's Trina?" Tori shook her head. "You don't know?" She shook her head again. "What about your parents? Do you know where they are?" More head shaking.

"We tried to ask her the same questions, but she just kept screaming," the woman said.

"You were touching her. She doesn't like to be touched by anyone but me," I explained. "Where are you taking her?"

"To a foster home while we search for relatives to transfer custody to," the man informed me.

"You can't put her in a foster home," I protested. "Don't you realize that she's autistic? You can't just tear her away from everything she knows!"

"Sir, who are you?" the woman asked me.

"André Harris. I'm her friend."

"Well, Mr. Harris, perhaps you can help us get Victoria into the car so we—"

"Don't call her Victoria," I interrupted the man. "She doesn't know who Victoria is. Call her Tori."

The man rolled his eyes. "If you could help us get _Tori_ in the car, it would make everyone's life a lot easier. We'll even give you the address of the home so you can visit her tomorrow."

"I'd rather come with her now," I told him. "She'll need a lot of help getting settled in."

"You can't come with us, but you can visit her tomorrow," the woman insisted. I looked at Tori. She was staring at a bird sitting on a low tree branch with a small smile dancing on her lips, appearing and disappearing every few seconds. I sighed. She would never survive in foster care with strangers. They didn't know anything about her. She needed to be with someone who cared about her. She needed to be with me.

"Can she come live with me instead of these strangers?" I requested. "My mom and dad are registered foster parents. They can do it."

"We'll see what we can do," said the woman. "But we'd be able to start that process much sooner if you help us get Tori into the car so we can take her to this foster home for a night. Okay?" I nodded and turned to Tori.

"Hey, Tori," I said. She turned to me, still smiling from the bird. "Tori, you're gonna go with these people and spend the night at a different house. You won't know the people there, but they'll be very nice to you, okay?"

"Come?" Tori asked, tugging on my sleeve.

"No, I'm sorry, baby. I can't come with you. But I'm gonna come see you tomorrow, okay?" Tori nodded. I knew that probably didn't mean that she understood what I was saying, but I wanted to pretend that it did. "I don't want you to be scared, okay? If you ever get scared, just think about the time when we went to the park together, and I pushed you on the swings extra high. That was fun, wasn't it?" Tori nodded, smiling. "You were brave then and you're brave now. I'll take you to the park again if the people you're going to be staying with say that you were on your very best behavior. Can you be good for me?" Tori nodded. "That's my girl." I gave her a big squeeze.

"Tight," Tori said breathlessly. I immediately released her so she could breathe again. I said goodbye one last time and helped her put her seatbelt on in the backseat of the car while the woman wrote down the address of the home for me.

"We'll take good care of her. I promise," she said as I put the paper in my pocket.

"You better," I said menacingly. They got into the front of the car and drove away with Tori.

Part of me couldn't help but wonder if I was ever going to see her again.


End file.
